You probably woke up this morning to realize the Internet is totally screwy.

Is it the online apocalypse? Not so much. Google, Wikipedia, Boing Boing and others have gone dark, along with thousands of others, who are protesting two anti-piracy bills that are up for debate in the U.S. Congress.

It's a debate that's pitted the Web against Washington. And if the goal of these protests was to get people talking, that sure seems to have worked, with every media organization on the planet talking about piracy today.

Many of these sites are using creative techniques to bring attention to the two bills -Β one called SOPA, the other PIPA -Β and making very clear their viewpoint on it.

Before you panic, read our quick-and-dirty guide to these online protests.

So, what are these piracy bills about?

With all of these sites going dark, it is important to know why this topic has become the center of a heated debate.

CNNMoney has a genius explainer on this topic, for those interested in all the gritty details. The gist is this: Media companies are upset that their copyrighted content gets stolen and given away for free by some websites. Two bills aim to crack down on this piracy by restricting access to U.S. websites that potentially could link to this pirated content. Tech companies in Silicon Valley say the bills have unintended consequences that could tamper with the way the Internet functions.

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Kidding! That blackout technique is part of the point these sites are trying to make today as they fullyΒ go dark.

"Boing Boing is offline today, because the US Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever," the site says.

The humor website TheOatmeal.com has gotten the most traction for its creative use of their homepage to bring attention to SOPA.

"For the next 24 hours I am blacking out TheOatmeal.com in protest of SOPA and PIPA. If one of these bills were to pass, this page is what many sites on the internet would look like," the website reads. "As someone who creates content for the web, earns a living from it, and hasΒ had his content pirated, I do feel that we need better legislation against online piracy.Β IΒ do not, however, think that SOPA or PIPA are the legislation we need."

The site's page, like many others remains black and has an animated GIF that it points out they took from somewhere else. If SOPA were to pass, the site says, they would be shut down. We'd show you the full animation, but it is a little not-safe-for-work. The animation is several images compiled from the Web with text about SOPA and a message in between, as seen above. The site asks you to join them and "please pirate the s***out of this animated GIF."

The site GOOD, which is known for its commentary on culture and society, also put up a massive splash page today.

"Today, GOOD is joining forces with friends around the world and around the internet to mobilize opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act, the flawed bills being considered in the House and Senate right now," the site says at the top of their homepage. At the bottom they thank those who share their view, in quite an upfront way.

All these sites, and thousands of others, are protesting two anti-piracy bills that are up for debate in the U.S. Congress.

They're arguing that so much of the content we share comes from other places and if this new law were to pass, much of it wouldn't be able to be published or would be censored or taken offline if it were. Links couldn't be shared to other content unless otherwise approved, the same goes for images and any other content.

Thatβs why companies like Google and Wikipedia are protesting and asking people to join them.

"Fighting online piracy is important. The most effective way to shut down pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding," aΒ templateΒ letter for users to send to legislators says on Google's site. "Thereβs no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs."

One key provision of SOPA, which would have allowed the government to block certain domain names, has been eliminated. That was drawing comparisons to China's Internet policies (not a good thing if you're the U.S.)

Discussion of the bills also has been pushed back. In the House, SOPA likely wonβt get a hearing until February. The Senate bill, PIPA, could be discussed in late January. Those dates are subject to constant change, and the bills are being amended regularly.

But, bottom line, commentators say the bills are losing steam:

"Before it looked like it would pass with 80 votes, and now [the online protest] looks like something that will suck the votes away," a Senate Democratic aide told CNN's Political Ticker. "We're at a tipping point. It will either become a huge issue or die down a bit and that will determine the future of this."

Among other differences, OPEN offers more protection than SOPA would to sites accused of hosting pirated content. It also beefs up the enforcement process. It would allow digital rights holders to bring cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent agency that handles trademark infringement and other trade disputes.

Some people, including Wikipediaβs founder, Jimmy Wales, like the legislation, or at least the idea behind it.

Others say it doesnβt go far enough to protect copyright:

SOPA may be flawed, but we do need to do something to protect intellectual copyright. Just because it's online doesn't mean it's not theft.

CNN asked Wales if he worried about backlash to the blackout. He shrugged it off:

This is a principled stand. It comes from our community. We had this huge voting process. We just don't think in those kinds of terms. I believe our best long-term prospect for Wikipedia in terms of our survival ... depends on us being principled and making it known that, hey, Wikipedia is here to stand up for free and open Internet. I think that will drive donations in the long term. I think it will drive contributions. And, especially from what I've seen on Twitter, I think it will drive the passionate loyalty of our fans. People feel like if push comes to shove they can count on Wikipedia, and that really matters to people.

Is there a way to get around the Wikipedia blackout?

Vous parlez francais? If so, you're in luck. All of the foreign-language articles on Wikipedia are still available. If you're really desperate, you could use a service like Google Translate to get those into English.

If you have a smartphone, the mobile version of Wikipedia is up and available, according to several news reports and our trials.

On the iPad it's a little more complicated, writes The Telegraph:

On the iPad however, the site serves its full website, so although it was accessible earlier, Wkipedia is not currently available.Β The site is also currently displaying its articles for a very short time and then covering them with its special βdarkβ homepage protesting against the SOPA piracy legislation. Users can hit either the βXβ button on a tablet or press escape in some internet browsers if using a PC. Internet Explorer, however, does not seem to support this currently.

Finally, some reports suggest that if you press the "escape" key right as the English version of Wikipedia is loading in a standard Internet browser, you can bypass the SOPA advocacy message and go straight to articles. Worked for us, but give it a try yourself.

soundoff(389 Responses)

Amazed

I'm all for stopping piracy but these bills won't accomplish this, the biggest proponents of these bills are the entertainment industry which is fine. But the scopes of the bills that they support is that they can ask the government to shut down a website because they say it infringes on their IP's. The problem is that this "infringement" can preclude to a video or picture to a commentary or mentioning a unfavorable comment on a IP. This bill isn't about protecting their IP's it about protecting their bottom lines because they became stagnant and are afraid of the power of the internet

I have Dial-up internet, if you don't know what that is.... it took me 45 mins to get to this website................. I couldn't imagine the patience i would require if those bills passed. I can't even "Pirate" if it were even to saved my life right now. SOPA/PIPA is not the way to go.

I have a pretty fast connection and I can't play CNN videos. They start and stop so much I don't watch them.

They put so much crap on a page now that it takes a full minute for some of them to open.

Sorry about your dial up connection, the web has outgrown you. That is all I had for years too but the sad fact in America is that no one cares and no one is responsible. Darwinian Capitalism is the rule here. For the good of all is not a slogan that you will find in America.

You would ruin the World Wide Web. Copyright law's are not an american issue alone, you would need to get the attention of other countries aswell and maybe with a combine effort you can come up with a bill a little more thought out. If not you may aswell take the www. out of the equation and replace it as USOW. ( United States Owns the Web )

All it will do is make piracy easier by blocking out the people who are following it to catch Americans. In addition to holding up law enforcement, it will also make it harder to catch other nasties that the police are trying to catch (pedos for example, terrorists are another). And it punishes the wrong people, the end users. The pirates are smart enough to work around this. If we let this pass, next, the RIAA and MPAA will go after those who provide us Internet access and we may not have the Internet in America at all then.

SOPA and PIPA do nothing but allow white collar pirates like Rupert Murdoch do what he does with impunity, while it imposes restrictions on legitimate internet businesses and innovators. You gotta know that if a man who preys on victim's families for information is *for* these bills, there is something that moral, ethical people should be *against*. I'm against SOPA and PIPA.

I know several people who have illegally downloaded 2 and even 3 terabytes worth of music and movies they didn't pay one red cent for. They are my friends. While I disagree with their choice to do so, they are still my friends.
And yet, they are also raging against SOPA and PIPA while failing to realize that they are the very reason these bills exist.
Frankly, I do not care if even my friends have to pay steep fines or serve prison time for their piracy.

While I don't want to see either of these bills pass, I DO want to see people start holding themselves accountable for their own actions. This country is in a poor state of affairs when we have to protect people from their own stupidity, and the rest of us have to pay the pricxe for the selfishness of others.

@AndriconBoy I would simply use a non-US based proxy service or a non-US based search engine. While I agree online piracy is an issue SOPA is not the way to address it. The concept is badly flawed and would be disastrous for US based service providers.

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Try taking off your foil helmets and getting out for some fresh air every now and then. Better still, try creating something...anything...for a living...and then letting people steal it. Doesn't that feel good? Not.

Why don't they spend the time and trouble where it needs to be, hacking, instead of taking money from companies to censor the internet. The hacking is a much bigger problem from China and other countries. People downloading a little music is not as much a threat as the hacking problem is!!!!

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